3rd Pakistan Edible Oil Conference (PEOC) in Karachi

KARACHI: One day 3rd Pakistan Edible Oil Conference (PEOC) was held on Saturday in Karachi to highlight the issues being faced by the industry.

In this conference leading and most renowned speakers, industry experts presented their papers and analyze the market directions. All the leading Brands of Pakistan also setup their stalls sideline of the conference to showcase their products.

While, addressing the inaugural ceremony, Lt. Gen. (Retired) Abdul Qadir Bloch Minister of State for Frontier Regions said on Saturday that with efforts of the present government security situation in the country has improved during the last couple of years and Pakistan is now favorable for the investment.

“Pakistan has fight against the terrorism for many years and conducted several operations to eliminate the terrorists and bring peace in the country. Now, there is no security issues in Pakistan and economy is on pace of growth”, he added.

Minister for State said that a large number of participation of foreign delegates also evidence that Pakistan’s security situation is much batter then previous years.

Chaudary Jaffar Iqbal Minister for State for Maritime Affairs said that the government of Pakistan is fully committed to facilitate the business community for long term economic growth. He said that presently three port including Karachi Port, Port Qasim and Gwadar ports are fully operational and providing state of art services to the traders.

Rasheed Jan Muhammad Chief Executive PEOC 2018 in his welcome address said that Since Pakistan is a very significant market with annual consumption of around 4 million tons of edible oil. “I strongly believed that this conference will be very consecutive for all stakeholder of the industry”, he added.

He also thanked Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA), All Pakistan Solvent Extractors’ Association (APSEA), Pakistan Edible Oil Refiners Association (PEORA) and Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association (PSMA) for giving their support in the organization of this conference. He hailed the role of Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and GAPKI and BPDPKS of Indonesia for their kind support.

Rasheed in its presentation on “Emerging Trends In The Edible Oil Sectors- A view from Pakistan”, revealed that the import and consumption of edible oil in Pakistan is gradually increasing. He said that during the 2017 revealed that per capita consumption went up to 18 kg primarily because of increase in population and improvement in the buying power of the middle class.

enewspaper.com.pk/PEC 2018

He informed that total edible oil consumption in the country surged to 4 million tons annually including 0.4 million tons of domestic production and some 3 million tons of imported edible oil. While, some 0.7 million tons of oil was extracted from imported seeds.

“The import of edible oil in 2017 was highest in the history and some 19 percent higher than 2016. This could attributed to the increase in demand but overbought, which resulted in too much pressure on the local market”, he added.

Pakistan’s major edible oil imports are from Malaysia and Indonesia, however despite some increase in Malaysia’s share, Indonesia is still dominating in the Pakistan’s oil trade. During the last year, import of palm oil products from Malaysia was 0.57 million tons (with 20 percent share) and some 2.2 million tons from Indonesia (with 80 percent share).

Overall import of oilseeds was increase some 36 percent in 2017 compared to 2016. In addition, imports of soybeans posted substantially increase of 100 percent during the last year.

While, presenting the international market scenario Rasheed Jan Muhammad informed that MalaysianPalm production was 19.92milliontons in 2017 compared to 17.32 million tons in 2019 and expected to be around 20.5 million tons in 2018. Similarly, IndonesianPalmproduction was around36million2017 as against32.3 million tons in 2016 and it may be 38 million tons in this calendar year.

He reveled that Indian import of edible oil during 2016-17 was 15.07 million tons up from 14.57 million tons in2015-16 and expected to be around 15.80 million tons in 2017-18.

Khawaja Arif Qasim Chairman PEOC said that edible oil sector is among five leading spinners of Pakistan and alone contributing some Rs 120 billion annually in national exchequer.

This Conference is being organized by all the Four Associations which are related to Edible Oil / Oilseed and Soap Industry, namely, PVMA, APSEA, PEORA, PSMA.

During the conference speakers said that since the import volume of edible oil and oilseeds are growing and have touched the unprecedented level of 3.00 million tons each for the calendar year 2017, the timing and significance of this conference is very much pertinent.